KOJ meets Louis Sclavis "PIFFKANEIRO"
In 2004 the Jazz club Moods and the Filmpodium der Stadt Zürich commissioned the ensemble KOJ (ex nadelohr) to write live-music for the film „Die Bergkatze“ by Ernst Lubitsch, a true gem of a silent movie.
The result is a bitter-sweet, sometimes feisty and ironical music: The themes and motives – most of them composed by nadelöhr – are improvised on, structured and displaced to form the subtle and enthralling musical experience nadelöhr has become famous for.
The confrontational work and KOJ’s unique craftsmanship have resulted in an abundance of music and growing compositions and have led to music shows in autumn 2007 with the project-name PIFFKANEIRO.
Hereby Lubitsch’s imaginary city of Piffkaneiro (Lubitsch places his film „not far from Piffkaneiro“) becomes a stage for new meetings of the characters from Bergkatze. Piffkaneiro is a grotesque town in the mountains, full of stories and colourful districts with its dubious, daring and sometimes very pretty inhabitants.
Musically speaking we are confronted by the themes and motives from the film appearing in different surroundings, where new arrangements and improvisation have made them grow and develop further.
For the recording of the CD PIFFKANEIRO (September 2007) KOJ could win the French clarinettist Louis Sclavis. Sclavis who had set the silent movie „Dans la Nuit“ by Charles Vanel to music in 2002, has enriched the multy-layered music of KOJ with his outstanding virtuosity and his gift in merging of various musical worlds.
Sclavis’ „voice from the off“ has added a new dimension to the Bergkatze material and it therefore additionally detached from the imagery of the movie. In future live shows Louis Sclavis or Claudio Puntin will also be an additional member of the project.
Discography:
- Nadelohr (1994, UNIT REC)
- Charming Stories (1998, UNIT REC)
- Merry Melodies (2002, UNIT REC)
- Piffkaneiro (2009, BETWEEN THE LINES)
